South Africa currently has one of the highest rates of road deaths in the world and the associated statistics are horrendous:

18,000 people per year are killed in motor vehicle crashes (source: MRC)

150,000 people per year are severely injured in motor vehicle crashes (source: MRC)

Drunk drivers in SA are amongst the highest in the world

A large portion of these accidents are as a result of drunk drivers, in fact:

15,000 drunk drivers were arrested in 2009 in the Western Cape alone (source: MEC Robin Carlisle)

Every day in South Africa, an average of 45 people die, 410 are injured and 25 people are paralysed (source: SADD)

Don't be one of these statistics. You should not be driving if you've had more than 1 drink.

How much is too much?

Your blood may not have an alcohol content of more than 0.05% in South Africa. So, if you have more than 350ml of beer or a single tot of spirit such as brandy or whisky, you may already be over the legal limit.
And remember that these levels of alcohol will remain in your system for up for eight hours after consumption.

It has been proven that on average it takes your body one hour to process one unit of alcohol. (just think about it, you have 8 beers in an evening, that’s approx 1.8 units of alcohol x 8 drinks, so it will take
between 10 - 16 hours for that to work through your body - well into the next morning!) There is absolutely no way to speed up this process - not by eating a lot of greasy food, drinking water or coffee or taking
any number of sober-up pills. Food only slows the absorption of alcohol into your blood stream as it sits in your stomach for a little longer while water combats the dehydration that takes place as your liver works
to extract the toxins from your blood. Coffee has absolutely no impact other than dehydrating your body further and giving your liver more work.

The alternative

There is an alternative to drinking and driving. It's simply about changing a mindset. 1 For the Road offers a reliable and responsible solution to getting you and your car home in one piece.
Is it really worth taking the chance of driving when you know you shouldn't?

AARTO - the new point system

New traffic laws will come into place called AARTO (Administrative Adjudication of Road Traffic Offices), otherwise known as the demerit point system. From April 2011, for each
traffic fine you receive, you will be allocated a minimum of 1 point, up to a maximum of 12 points. Anyone caught drinking and driving can receive 12 points at once, resulting in their licence
being revoked for three months. Can you afford not to drive for three months?

The bottom line is that you'll no longer be able to tuck a traffic fine into a drawer and forget about it. It's time to be responsible. It's not negotiable.